Don’t let coal & gas win from new Environment Laws

New draft national environmental laws are being written, but they are taking us backwards.

They will allow decisions to harm Australia’s outstanding natural heritage to be made by state governments alone on key fossil fuel projects when we know we can’t trust states and territories with our environment.

They won’t ensure the biggest environmental harm from coal and gas projects, their role in fuelling climate change, will be taken into account.

The government’s proposed draft laws won’t won’t protect your climate or your water and won’t save endangered wildlife, like the Koala, from ...

New draft national environmental laws are being written, but they are taking us backwards.

They will allow decisions to harm Australia’s outstanding natural heritage to be made by state governments alone on key fossil fuel projects when we know we can’t trust states and territories with our environment.

They won’t ensure the biggest environmental harm from coal and gas projects, their role in fuelling climate change, will be taken into account.

The government’s proposed draft laws won’t won’t protect your climate or your water and won’t save endangered wildlife, like the Koala, from extinction.

- Also included is a “pay to destroy” scheme that allows companies to pay into a ‘conservation fund’ to garner approval, and
- A Ministerial override power that will allow the Minister to overrule the Environmental Protection Agency and approve projects regardless of their impacts.

Can you send Minister Plibersek a message today and urge for key fixes to be made in draft environmental laws?

Please add to our draft message any experience you’ve had with the existing Environmental Laws (EPBC Act) and share your desire for strong and decisive environmental laws that give the public a voice, and protect our precious natural and cultural heritage.

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Send a message to Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek

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Please send a message to the Environment Minister and the Department of Environment using our form below. Together we can ensure that new environmental laws don’t benefit coal & gas companies.

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Subject:

Dear Minister Plibersek, and Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water,

The draft Nature Positive environment reforms released in late December are in urgent need of major changes to ensure the new laws actually protect the environment.

I would like to raise the following key concerns with the proposed reforms outlined in December:

- Failure to include a climate trigger means that the impacts of downstream greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel projects on the Great Barrier Reef and other Australian environments will not be considered.

- The use of ‘accredited approvals’ will effectively create a ‘one-stop shop’ that allows approval decisions to be made by state and territory governments who have shown themselves incapable of protecting the environment.

- There is no firm protection in what is proposed for habitat critical for the survival of our most endangered species like the Koala.

- The reforms fail on integrity because they do not provide any transparency over political donations and do not provide community merits appeal rights which NSW ICAC have described as ‘a disincentive to corrupt conduct’.

- The Ministerial call-in power will allow the Federal Environment Minister to override the EPA in approving projects, even if they have unacceptable impacts on protected matters.

- The use of ‘restoration payments’ effectively creates a ‘pay to destroy’ scheme, where a project can still be approved if it pays into a fund.

I would like to request that urgent changes be made to the proposed reforms, including:

- Ensuring the full environmental impacts of projects are understood with the introduction of a climate trigger to require the full downstream climate impacts of project proposals on Australian environments, including the Great Barrier Reef, to be assessed,

- Keeping Commonwealth oversight of nationally important decisions by withdrawing the proposal for accredited approvals that hand decisions over to states and territories,

- Putting in place strict, upfront protection for habitat that is critical to the survival of our iconic endangered species like the Koala,

- Improving the integrity of the scheme by allowing communities to test decisions on their merits in court, and cracking down on political donations and lobbying by proponents,

- Removing the Ministerial call-in power that will enable the Minister to override decisions by the proposed new Environmental Protection Authority and increase the independence of the Authority, and

- Dropping the proposal to enable projects to garner approval on the basis of making payments into a so-called restoration fund.

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